Ubuntu Software Center isn't working.

Asked by Melinda

I'm using UBUNTU 11.04, Software Center isn't working. When I try to open it, it opens but the screen stays Grey has the loading sign as if it's loading but does not ever load. I can't install anything or uninstall anything via Software Center. Can anyone help? Thanks!

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Ubuntu software-center Edit question
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Manfred Hampl
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James Peters (reteptj73-) said :
#1

    Hi,try ,Try running this command in a terminal:
               sudo dpkg --configure -a , when that finishes then these two , sudo apt-get update
                sudo apt-get upgrade

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Melinda (melired15-deactivatedaccount) said :
#2

melired15@melired15-A15G:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
[sudo] password for melired15:
melired15@melired15-A15G:~$ sudo apt-get update
E: Type '“deb' is not known on line 59 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list
E: The list of sources could not be read.
melired15@melired15-A15G:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
melired15@melired15-A15G:~$

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James Peters (reteptj73-) said :
#3

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Software Center, Update Manager stopped working
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My software center stopped working. I can open it, but any search I do (or any category I select) gives me a blank screen with the revolving circle without ever presenting any results.

I launched the update manager hoping that an update might resolve the problem and I got an error message. The error message ( could not initialize the package information) made me think that the two problems might be related.

Error Message

How can I debug this and update my OS?
11.04 package-management software-center update-manager bug
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asked Jul 10 at 15:39
Calixte
3389

64% accept rate

possible duplicate of "Problem with MergeList" error when trying to do an update – enzotib Jul 10 at 16:11
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up vote 4 down vote accepted

Looks like that file might have been corrupted. It gets downloaded during a apt-get update, so open a terminal and do this

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_partner_binary-amd64_Packages
sudo apt-get update

Then open up update manager
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answered Jul 10 at 15:41
tgm4883
39117

1

Yup. It's also safe to go ahead and delete everything in /var/lib/apt/lists. They'll all get recreated with the apt-get update. – Mark Russell Jul 10 at 16:16

Thanks, that worked :-) – Calixte Jul 10 at 16:49

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enubuntu (mr.tennents) said :
#4

Hi please in terminal run this command:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade; sudo apt-get --reinstall install software-center

then try to use the USC

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James Peters (reteptj73-) said :
#5

I found this on a forum which may help you,it seems to be the same type of problem you have ,(I am fairly new to Linux O.S.after migrating from Vista ) so the majority of my solutions at the moment is surfing other forums for similar problems to mine etc,any how see if this is any help,regards PJT.

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Best Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#6

The root cause might be hidden in this error message
E: Type '“deb' is not known on line 59 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list

Solution:
open a terminal (ctrl-alt-t)
execute the command

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Enter your password when asked so, and you will see an editor with your sources list loaded.

Scroll down to line 59.
All lines in the sources.list should either start with a # sign (then they are a comment) or with deb or with deb-src.
Line 59 most probably starts with a doublequote character ("), which is not allowed.
Remove that extra character such that the line reads deb http://... like all other lines.

Save the file and close the editor

Then try again and report whether Software Center works again or not.

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Melinda (melired15-deactivatedaccount) said :
#7

Thanks Manfred Hampl, that solved my question.